The national press corps sometimes jokes about a president so excited by a big event he insists, “We must tell the press at once!” and his staff responds, “Yes, sir – announcement or leak?”
Leaks are not always unplanned in Washington; often they are a strategy, floating a trial balloon to see the reaction. It is almost certainly what led to the current Internet frenzy about federal plans to ban gas stoves. Social media is awash in posts by Democratic officials panicked about a new report saying gas stoves cause childhood asthma. Rep. Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez, Sen. Elizabeth Warren, V.P. Kamala Harris, and even First Lady Jill Biden, are all being mocked for sounding the alarm, because they all have gas stoves themselves. They’re not alone – 40 million American homes, and 90 percent of professional chefs, choose gas stoves because they cook better than electric ones. A classic expression, when one starts performing better, is “now you’re cooking with gas!”
A December report from the International Journal of Environmental Research and Public Health claims gas stoves are responsible for 12.7 percent of childhood asthma cases. It has already been debunked by numerous scientists, because it is not a scientific study in any sense, but a convoluted math equation combining dissimilar statistics from older literature. The authors estimated, based on other papers, that there is a 34 percent increase in the risk of asthma with exposure to gas stoves. Then they estimate the share of households with gas stoves, and wind up with the 12.7 percent conclusion about childhood asthma – taking into consideration no other potential causes.
As my colleague Steve Milloy points out, asthma is mainly triggered by allergic reactions and there are no allergens in natural gas, so the alarm is absurd on its face. The cause of childhood asthma (I had it as a child myself) remains unknown. Nevertheless, citing this new paper, a Biden-appointed Consumer Product Safety Commission (CPSC) member named Richard Trumka proposed a ban on new natural gas stoves, to combat childhood asthma. Calling gas stoves a “hidden hazard,” he told Bloomberg news, “Products that can’t be made safe can be banned.” There is little chance he made such a pronouncement without checking with anyone – this was a strategic leak.
A firestorm ensued, including almost universal outrage on social media. So, the Administration quickly walked back the proposal, including denials from the CPSC’s own chairman, and the President himself, both claiming critics are overreacting, and there is no plan to ban gas stoves. Yet numerous Democratic state and local officials are doing precisely that. New York’s Governor just days ago asked the legislature to enact a statewide ban. And local bans have already passed in San Francisco, Seattle, Los Angeles, and New York City.
We should be clear about the science. The only thorough analysis of any link between gas stoves and childhood asthma was published in 2013. It tested over 512,000 children at 108 locations in 47 countries, in two different age groups. The study concluded, “In both age groups, we detected no evidence of an association between the use of gas as a cooking fuel and either asthma symptoms or asthma diagnosis.”
Other so-called studies are all over the map. One found a link with asthma for girls but not boys, and no links with other respiratory issues. Another researcher plotted on a graph the gas stove ownership share in various states, compared with childhood asthma rates but found no noticeable relationship. Illinois has a far higher percentage of gas stove ownership, yet its childhood asthma rate is lower than Florida, where there are comparatively few gas stoves.
A year ago, Stanford researchers published a study linking gas stoves to health hazards and climate change. But they admitted to encasing a kitchen in plastic sheets, removing all ventilation, and then turning on the gas. A similar 2020 UCLA study, funded by the Sierra Club, assumed no ventilation in the kitchen. Research suggests indoor pollution is more about what one cooks than the type of stove. For example, olive oil is said to generate 17 times more emissions than gas stoves. Maybe people should just remember to turn on their hood fans.
Of course, this issue is not really about childhood asthma. It is about the unrelenting campaign against fossil fuels, the latest tactic of leaders determined to transform America to all electric, from cars to homes. Never mind that electricity is generated almost entirely by fossil fuels – that is merely the next phase of the battle.
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